The present invention relates in general to a personal matching/meeting service that utilizes wireless, and/or Internet infrastructures coupled with real-time positional data. Said infrastructures are used to connect users to a database of user profiles and real-time positional data. Said database is used to inform system users when they come within range of other users who meet search criteria. In particular, the present invention relates to improving personal meeting/matching services by locating users using positioning technology embedded within the wireless communications unit, peripherally attached, manually entered or obtained from the mobile communications infrastructure.
Several Internet based technologies have sought to introduce people and facilitate forms of dialogue. One such technology is the xe2x80x9cchat roomxe2x80x9d. In its traditional form, a chat room allows users to type messages via a keyboard and to view in real-time the messages that are typed by themselves and other users. Another technology known as a xe2x80x9cnews groupxe2x80x9d allows users to post messages, data, and post replies to posted messages. In both of these technologies, the users in a given chat room or on given news groups are physically separated, often by thousands of miles. Neither the chat room nor the news group allows the user to gather information about people around him, or to search for people around him.
Another more traditional system for introducing people is the dating or personal matching service. The object of such a system is ultimately to arrange a face-to-face meeting. In traditional systems, users submit a profile to the system containing information about them and about whom they would like to meet. The problem with traditional personal matching systems is that they do not maintain the user""s real-time positions. This means that the system will probably only provide matches to users who live near each other. A dating service that matched a person in New York with a person in Moscow would be useless to most users despite the fact that the person in Moscow might well provide the best compatibility with the person in New York. The problem is that the parties are too physically distant for a meeting to be practical. However, if the New Yorker ever found himself in Moscow, a meeting would be feasible, but the traditional matching system would be unaware that the users had come within reasonable range of each other, because traditional systems do not maintain the real-time positions of the users. Thus the traditional system would not arrange for the parties to meet. A more detailed description of the need for the invention disclosed herein is found in U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 60/162,333 filed Oct. 29, 1999 and is hereby incorporated by reference.